Evangelist Tells Students Their Souls Can Find Rest

International speaker and author Andrew Palau arrived at Palm Beach Atlantic University on Monday with a welcome message for harried college students everywhere: You can find rest for your soul.

“Rest for our souls is a desire of every human heart,” said Palau, who based his message on Jeremiah 6:16: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’”

Palau is the son of evangelist Luis Palau, who will be the guest chapel speaker at Palm Beach Atlantic at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the Greene Complex for Sports and Recreation. The event is open to the public.

Ten years ago, Palau and his wife, Wendy, directed Beachfest, an event developed by his father’s ministry that drew nearly 300,000 people to the beach in Fort Lauderdale. Palau said he still has many friends in the South Florida area, including PBA alumnus Weston Cotton ’08, who gave the introduction to Palau’s speech in the DeSantis Family Chapel.

Palau said that in the past year he has traveled to six continents to proclaim the good news of Jesus. He recently returned from a trip to Haiti, he said.

People around the globe are asking the same question, he said: Can individuals really find rest in these times of trouble?

The answer is an emphatic yes, Palau said. “You can stand at the crossroads of your life this day and call out to (God), and He will bring rest into your life. And your life will be marked by peace,” he said.

He asked those in the audience to envision themselves at peace and thereby becoming the embodiment of God in this world. “This is what He has called you to,” he said, “to be His man, to be His woman, even at this young age.”

Palau, now a married father of three, shared his own testimony of youthful rebellion and eventual salvation at age 27, a story he chronicles in his book “The Secret Life of a Fool.”

“I was born and raised in a great Christian home, but I turned my back on the things of God,” he said.

At the time, Palau said he thought he knew a better way. “I struck up every flaming torch of my own,” he said, making reference to Isaiah 50:11: “But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires, and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.”

During that period, his parents remained faithful, prayed for him and lived lives of integrity, he said. “I’m glad they never gave up,” he said.

Many young people have begun lighting torches and going on their own paths, he said. Others have heard the good news their entire lives, but then in college or afterward, they suddenly arrive at a realization: “I never lit up my own torch for Jesus. I never entered into that relationship for myself,” he said.

The Father created His people to be in a personal relationship with Him, Palau said.

“The good news is this: The relationship that is broken can be made whole again one way — through the cross of Jesus Christ,” he said.